Saturday, February 8, 2014

With an election coming up, it is as important as ever that voters inform themselves before they vote. The by-election in Niagara is very important. Brigitte Bonner sent this letter to various media in the area. I have not seen it published anywhere else, so I offer it to you here:

We have been hearing alot in the news about Tim Hudak’s “Million Jobs Act”. But what is it, really? From what I understand, Hudak wants to limit funds to unions in the hopes of eventually destroying them all. His plan is a copy of the “Right to Work” scheme that is prevalent in the U.S. He touts this as giving “rights” to workers, that is, the right to refuse to pay union dues. But how will that actually help the average worker in Ontario? In South Carolina, where Right to Work laws have existed for over 50 years, the minimum wage is only $7.25 per hour. People there refer to the act as the “Right to Work for Less Act”. Is this where we’re headed? Implementing the Right to Work Act will make it more difficult for unions to survive. Unions help workers by fighting for things like fair wages, good working conditions, job safety, job security and benefits. Not only do unions help those workers in a unionized workplace, but they fight for legislation that can benefit all workers in Ontario. In other words, the average worker in Ontario will suffer. Of course Tim’s plan will help big business because they will have more power and more profit. In Fort Erie we have already seen hundreds lose their jobs over the past years. In one case an American company in Stevensville simply shut their doors and walked away from their employees without any prior notice or assistance to help them deal with so suddenly being jobless. Some had worked at the plant for over three decades. Hudak’s plan will certainly cause more events like this. Without unions, workers will have more difficulty getting fair wage increases. With rising costs for necessities such as food, gas and hydro, many people today already work two to three low paid, part-time jobs just to get by. How are we to pay for these things with lower wages? How will the average person be able to raise a family and live decently? We won’t.

Hudak says his plan will create jobs and “modernize” employment. Perhaps by this he means companies won’t have to build their industries thousands of miles overseas. They can build their industries in Ontario, where there will be an abundance of cheap, powerless labour for them to exploit and profit from.

The right to say no to a union is much less important than having no right to fair wages, job security and safe working conditions.

If Mr. Hudak thinks he will have an easier time of getting his party into his “hometown”, he can think again. People around here know what he’s like and don’t want him back

Brigitte Bonner

Editor's Note:

I concur with Ms. Bonner regarding the Right to Work philosophy. It is union busting, plain and simple. Met up with it when I was a union organizer in the States. Organizing people into a decent union has always been a challenge but, Right to Work laws make it near impossible. Any worker should be very afraid of this trend.

Like many have come to realize, the PC party is unrecognizable from what it was just a few years ago.